High School Senior Accomplishes Eagle Scout and Girl Scout Gold Award; Honored by Florin for Community Service
Kai (Kianna) Nakaoka, a 17-year-old senior at John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento, has achieved a rare double Scouts honor: Eagle Scout rank (the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA, formerly Boy Scouts of America) and the Girl Scout Gold Award (the highest and most prestigious award in Girl Scouting).
Both troops are sponsored by the Buddhist Church of Sacramento.
According to the BSA, just 6% of Scouts earn Eagle rank. According to the Girl Scouts of America, fewer than 6% of Girl Scouts earn a Girl Scout Gold Award.
Few Scouts have achieved both honors since the BSA began admitting girls in 2017.
Although exact numbers are unavailable, fewer than 10 girls have been reported to achieve both ranks since 2019, according to news reports.
Both of these performance-based achievements come with high standards and numerous requirements, including the planning and development of a service project that engages volunteers and community members with the goal of helping to fix a problem in the community or making lasting change in the world.
Kai’s Eagle Scout project supported Zak’s Closet, a free clothing boutique sponsored by the Lutheran Social Services of Northern California.
Zak’s Closet provides clothing and accessories for transgender and nonbinary youth in Sacramento.
Kai directed plans to remodel the boutique and conduct a clothing drive that ultimately yielded more than 1,200 articles of clothing, accessories, and jewelry, almost tripling the boutique’s inventory.
Kai’s Girl Scout Gold Award project focused on addressing the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) gap for girls by engaging them through robotics.
Kai created 18 videos detailing robotic badges, raised funds, and purchased several sets of robotics kits.
She donated the kits to the Girl Scouts Heart of Central California STEM Center to be used in afterschool programs to introduce youth to engineering and coding in engaging, inclusive, and creative ways.
In addition to Scouting, she received the Florin Buddhist Church community service award for her five-year involvement with the Florin Buddhist Church Jr. YBA. She served as president last year.
Kai is also an avid powerlifter. Co-founder of the JFK Powerlifting Club, Kai holds four international records, six national records, and 59 California state records in her powerlifting division.
Kai has been a part of the first global robotics community for nine years.
A top-ranked student at John F. Kennedy High School, she participates in the school’s Manufacture and Design (MAD) program.